Martha Warren Beckwith's listings of Jamaican plants and their associations with the spirit realm

Category: Warwickshire

As mentioned previously, this month’s post is taking a little holiday from Jamaican plant lore. Instead I pay a visit to my native Warwickshire to look at some sinister beliefs surrounding parsley (Petroselinum crispum). Just as a number of Jamaican plants have associations with the more negative spectrum of the spirit world, parsley too has links with a harmful entity. In fact, with the most negative spirit himself (in Christian belief at least), the Devil.

The folklore scholar C.S. Wharton found that in South Warwickshire it was held that “Only wicked people can make parsley grow” and that parsley goes down to hell and returns up again through the earth nine times.

The association of parsley with the Devil seems countrywide in England. A common theme is that it has to be planted on Good Friday, particularly between the hours of twelve and 3 pm, the time of Christ’s crucifixion, as during this period the Devil “is powerless and preoccupied”. Other cultivation tips linking parsley with Old Nick include pouring boiling water on the ground to “deter Satan” and having to plant three lots of seed: “one for the gardener and two for the Devil”.

Why does parsley have these associations with Beelzebub? One reason may be that the plant can be difficult to germinate. The fact that parsley seeds lie in the ground a long time before showing any sign of life may have resulted in the belief that it had burrowed down to visit Satan in his realm deep in the bowels of the earth.

Another reason could be the influence of the Classical belief that parsley is an unlucky plant associated with death. In Greek legend parsley first grew from the blood of the young son of King Lycurgus. The child, Archemorus, whose name means ‘the forerunner of death’, was killed by a snake whilst his nurse was distracted. In Discovering the Folklore of Plants, Margret Baker notes how the ancient Greeks and Romans adorned tombs with parsley and “wreaths were worn by victors of the funeral games” held to commemorate the dead.

Parsley was introduced into Britain from the Mediterranean so its unlucky reputation may have travelled here along with the original plants.

Next time….
It’s a return to Beckwith’s Jamaican plant lists and, as it’s the run up to Hallowe’en it’s got to be something ghost-related. so I’ll be looking at how Spirit Weed can help stop bothersome beings.